Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Church devotions: Facebook Blues - Colossians 3:8

Colossians 3:8 But
now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage,
malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

I
love Facebook and I hate Facebook – how does this occur?

I
love Facebook because it keeps me updated with most of my family and friends. I
love to read of their experiences, their feelings, and see photographs of
events or vacations. I love it when they post great quotes or funny cartoons. I
love having trivial, humorous, and even some deep conversations with people
from all over the world. These things make Facebook a pleasurable experience.

I
hate Facebook because I sometimes get embroiled in arguments about politics, religion,
and current events, even with people that I don’t know. I hate Facebook when
people post horrible pictures or sleazy photographs that don’t need to be seen.
I hate Facebook when folks that I love use bad language or curse and think it is
okay to do that. I hate Facebook when people use images, quotes, or links that
promote ill feelings, divisiveness, or outright rudeness.

So
I have this love/hate relationship with Facebook, but I have the same feelings
about most communicative digital experiences these days – whether I’m using
browsers and search engines, web articles or blog posts, or even e-mails and
texts.

Christians
should be very discerning people. I think if Paul was writing today’s chosen verse
he would have emphasized to all of us to think twice about what we write or
post from our laptops, computers, or mobile devices. We, of all people, should
apply different standards and make sure that our contributions to Facebook
conversations and posts, etc., do not include anger, rage, malice, slander, and
filthy language.

If
we do so, then we should also be aware that we are choosing to act sinfully and
are, in fact, letting Christ down completely.

Questions for personal reflection

Are my Facebook
posts worthy of Christ? If I was sending a digital message to Jesus, how would
I word it differently?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we are all too human at
times, and yet You command us to lead better lives. Forgive us when we fail to loyally
witness to You in all of our communications, especially those that are seen by
many people. Help us to infuse Christian standards in all that we seek to
express or communicate. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John
Stuart is the pastor at Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If
you would like to comment or ask a question about today’s message, please send
an email to John at traqair@aol.com.